UPDATE, 11:08AM: Looks like Jimmy Fallon’s second night hosting The Tonight Show and Conan O’Brien’s second night in 2009 doing the same are tied among the key demo but wide apart in terms of audience. Fast nationals have both broadcasts drawing a 2.3 rating among adults 18-49 for NBC. However in terms of viewership the two aren’t at all close. On his second night on June 2, 2009, O’Brien had 6.15 million viewers while Fallon’s midnight show pulled in 7.366 million last night. Now granted, Fallon had the Olympics providing a bit of bump, though their numbers were down last night, but still that is the best Tuesday audience The Tonight Show has had since the 7.44 million who watched the day after Christmas in 2000. The 18-49 result is the best the late night show has done on a Tuesday since the 2.5 of December 13, 2005.

PREVIOUS, 7:03AM: The second night of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon brought sturdy ratings to NBC and outperformed Night 2 of Conan O’Brien‘s stint in 2009. In overnight metered-markets ratings, Fallon Night 2 drew a 5.3/15 result. While that’s unsurprisingly down from the strong 7.1/17 result the host pulled for his first show, which started at midnight like last night’s did, it did beat O’Brien’s second night hosting The Tonight Show by 5%. However percentagewise, the drop was much more than what Jay Leno experienced on the second night of his return to The Tonight Show in 2010. Leno was down 14% from Night 1 to Night 2 while Fallon fell 25%. With guests Jerry Seinfeld, former fellow SNLer Kristen Wiig (who came on dressed as One Direction singer Harry Styles) and Lady Gaga, Tonight followed local news and NBC’s tape delayed Olympics primetime coverage of the Sochi Winter Games – which were down Tuesday with a 12.0/19 metered market rating from Monday’s 14.6/22.

Recent Comments

Jimmy Fallon is so immature and not funny with boring stints that it's a matter of time...

yo yo ma

1 year

NY gave NBC a huge tax break to move the show. NBC saves over $20M per year...

Nicky B

1 year

Oh give it a rest. We get it, you're a big fan of Conan. But the rest...

O’Brien’s June 2, 2009 show got a 5.0/12 overnight metered-market result – down from the 7.1/17 of his first night. It’s worth noting that Conan didn’t have the Olympics as a near lead-in like Fallon did – though the highly watched 2009 Stanley Cup finals between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Detroit Red Wings were going on that week but weren’t shown on NBC that particular night. The total viewership for night 2 of O’Brien’s short lived Tonight stint was 6.15 million with a 2.3 rating among adults 18-49. On his debut night, O’Brien had 9.17 million viewers with 3.8 rating among the demo – that’s a demo tie with Fallon’s first night and 2.14 million less in terms of viewers that the first night of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon had.

Apples-to-oranges, Fallon’s second night was far ahead of night 2 of Leno’s return to The Tonight Show in 2010. Leno went from a 5.4/14 in metered-market result on his first night to a 4.6/12 on March 2, 2010. When the final numbers were in Leno had attracted 5.81 million viewers with a 1.6 rating among the key 18-49 demo. His first return show had the same demo rating but 6.67 million viewers. Also, Fallon surpassed his last late night second night. That March 3, 2009 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon broadcast pulled in a 2.0/7 in overnight metered-markets results. Ultimately, that Late Night had 2.507 million viewers with a 1.0 rating among adults 18-49.

Late night rivals David Letterman and Jimmy Kimmel received respective overnight metered market ratings of 2.2/15 and 1.9/5 last night – a tiny drop for the ABC show despite a much hyped showing of the new trailer from Disney/Marvel’s upcoming Guardians Of The Galaxy pic. We’ll update with final Fallon Tonight Show Day 2 numbers when they come in later.

66 Comments

Jeff • on Feb 19, 2014 11:08 am

These comparisons are useless because Conan had Leno’s earlier show hanging him up. Fallon has no such impediments and should naturally have better ratings.

We will never know how good Conan would have been as Tonight Show host, because Leno’s show was the lead-in, which people would have taken as the Tonight Show too (which I think NBC was banking on to hedge their bets). It was a big-chinned albatross around Conan’s neck.

Miffy • on Feb 19, 2014 11:08 am

>>These comparisons are useless because Conan had Leno’s earlier show hanging him up.<<

Wrong. Conan didn't have Leno as a lead-in on his second night. Conan didn't have Leno as a lead-in until over three months into his run. By that point, Conan's ratings had already declined over 45 percent from Leno's. 45 percent. And that was before Leno became his lead-in.

Me • on Feb 19, 2014 11:08 am

Miffy and Mark got it right.

cj • on Feb 19, 2014 11:08 am

Um Conan had Leno as a lead in when he hosted Late Night so that argument that Leno caused Conan bad ratings doesn’t make sense.

tom • on Feb 19, 2014 11:08 am

You are right about the lead-ins. Why doesn’t the author point out how much the ratings have fallen since the show premiered the day earlier. Millions have turned it off. Fallon is a manic, PeeWee Herman
too much ADD. It won’t be long before he is out, but the real question is who will take over. I think NBC has burned their bridge with leno.

Mark • on Feb 19, 2014 11:08 am

Jay Leno’s Show didn’t affect Conan’s ratings for his second Tonight Show episode. Conan’s Tonight Show started in June, while the Jay Leno Show didn’t start until September.

JohnInDC • on Feb 19, 2014 11:08 am

Hey Jeff – you mustn’t believe the Conan whiners and dig deeper than what someone has you believing. As you will see in comments below, Conan’s ratings tanked way before September when Leno premiered.

Jeff • on Feb 19, 2014 11:08 am

So I read the replies to my original post and here’s what I say to them:

1) Yes, The Jay Leno Show didn’t come on until September 2009 and Conan had a few months as Tonight Show host before that. But Leno’s new show was announced in December of 2008, months before Conan took over as Tonight Show host and was well publicized in advance. This was Jeff Zucker attempting to have his cake and eat it too, by giving Conan the Tonight Show but making sure everybody knew that Jay would be back in his quasi-Tonight Show before long. There was never an opportunity for Conan to develop a rapport with the audience that had watched the Tonight Show, because as far as they were concerned, Leno was going to still be around.

2) Someone else stated that Leno had always been Conan’s lead-in while he hosted Late Night so what’s the difference? The difference is that Late night is not the Tonight Show. The Tonight Show has traditionally had a more mainstream middle-America audience while Late Night skewed to a younger, more edgy audience. When Conan took over the Tonight Show, he was essentially competing with Leno for the same audience.

Nicky B • on Feb 19, 2014 11:08 am

Oh give it a rest. We get it, you’re a big fan of Conan. But the rest of us didn’t care much for him or his annoying musician pal.

FTCS • on Feb 19, 2014 11:08 am

Unless the initial ratings are drop dead terrible they mean little. Jimmy is perfectly positioned to host the Tonight Show for the next 20 years, and when Letterman retires Jimmy should dominate the landscape. No offense to Craig Ferguson, but I do not see him filling Letterman’s slot.

And, Kimmel is not bad, but I don’t believe he will rival Fallon over the years.

The Cahuenga Kid • on Feb 19, 2014 11:08 am

I held out a lot of hope for Ferguson to shake things up in the late night world. But he has gotten noticeably lazier and bored-looking as the months pass. I like the guy but he looks and acts as if he’d rather be anywhere else than hosting a talk show.

David4 • on Feb 19, 2014 11:08 am

Because he probably is. I really don’t see him ever taking over the 11:30 slot.

Jake • on Feb 19, 2014 11:08 am

You’re not gonna really know how he will do until after he doesn’t have the Olympics lead. It seems just by the size of Fallon’s studio compared to Lenos that NBC wanted to cut costs

Cliff • on Feb 19, 2014 11:08 am

Fallon’s studio is the same studio Johnny Carson did the Tonight Show out of 40+ years ago. It’s more symbolic than a sign of a low budget.

Way of Rome • on Feb 19, 2014 11:08 am

^^This…why are there four comments made about relevance before anyone brought up the 800 pound gorilla that is the Olympics lead-in? These comparisons are meaningless until Fallon does not have the Olympics as a lead-in (if he’s only up 5% over Conan’s debut with the Olympics as a lead-in, you could speculate that it won’t fair very well for him, at all, after their over).

KPlan • on Feb 19, 2014 11:08 am

This is exactly what I was thinking. With 18M(?) people or so watching the Olympics, I’d expect that his ratings would be better.

That said, what NBC is doing, at the least, is keep people’s habitual late-night viewing on NBC. And, sometimes, it’s just about people’s habitual nature, not necessarily what show is most entertaining.

nickhronis • on Feb 19, 2014 11:08 am

I was thinking the same thing when I saw Fallon’s first night. I thought the studio looked like a shoebox and much smaller than the NBC burbank stage and the newer Universal set. The lighting on the show is very flat.

tellme • on Feb 19, 2014 11:08 am

I had a similar response to the tight little box that Jimmy shoots in. And it made me nostalgic for Carson bringing the show to Los Angeles in the 1970s, setting up on a big, wide sound stage and changing his wardrobe appropriately. Maybe it’s just the soft spot I have for Larry Sanders but there needs to be a great west-coast based show that does more with Los Angeles than walk down Melrose or Hollywood Blvd with a camera looking for idiots to humiliate.

Conan’s remotes are great, much better than the rest, but there’s no sense that he’s right there in Burbank, or if there is, I’m missing it. The romance of Johnny’s west coast show was the illusion for the rest of the country that while they’re settling in for the night, the evening’s just getting started out here.

Zoogy • on Feb 19, 2014 11:08 am

Fully agree, but sadly that Los Angeles no longer exists. Los Angeles has been destroyed (this isn’t the forum to detail how & by whom) and is now a pit. Additionally, all sense of romance has been sucked out of television & the entertainment biz (again, not the forum to detail how & by whom.) It certainly won’t be revived by the Millenial generation who have as much romance & creative spark as a slug, or by the bean counting congloms who have no love of tv/film or anything that isn’t another squeezed out dollar.

HKGuy • on Feb 19, 2014 11:08 am

If NBC wanted to cut costs it wouldn’t have moved the show to Rockefeller Center.

yo yo ma • on Feb 19, 2014 11:08 am

NY gave NBC a huge tax break to move the show. NBC saves over $20M per year because of it.

JK • on Feb 19, 2014 11:08 am

Wait til the Olympics end…Then we’ll see what the REAL ratings are.

Anonymous • on Feb 19, 2014 11:08 am

I think Jimmy Fallon is fantastic.

Rich • on Feb 19, 2014 11:08 am

I more than agree. PREDICTION….After all the initial comments are over (including reviews about the furniture!), FALLON will bury Letterman.

A reformed Craig fan.

jarlerguy • on Feb 19, 2014 11:08 am

It is far too early to tell anything. Fallon is riding his wave of popularity as the New Kid, just like Conan did. Let’s see where we are come summer and fall. Are people still in love with Jimmy F. or are they going elsewhere?

jared • on Feb 19, 2014 11:08 am

I’m team coco but that’s not true. Conan premiered in June while the jay leno show didn’t premiere until september

You do make a point that well never know conans true potential. Although he didn’t have Jay Leno as lead in, Conan premiered in the summer when NBC was full of reruns and no impulse from such a draw like the Olympics. Fallon’s ratings are being impulsed by the Olympics coverage right now. We will have to wait until that’s over and see if the audiences stay or leave. As of right now it doesn’t look too healthy, as his first night he only matched Conan despite the major Sochi push. But then we can argue that Fallon is on at midnight so the comparisons are not really fair either.

fallonlenoconan • on Feb 19, 2014 11:08 am

Even if Leno didn’t premiere till September, people still knew he was coming so audiences didn’t really bother to give Conan a chance. PLUS, as people have mentioned, Fallon has the Olympics as a lead-in. The ratings will go down. There’s no doubt about it. In fact, Conan should be given credit for getting decent ratings during the summer when there was no proper lead-in for him.

Bob • on Feb 19, 2014 11:08 am

Well, there you go. A 25% drop from Night 1 to Night 2. Time to bring Leno back! Geez, you guys are way to ANALytical.

JohnInDC • on Feb 19, 2014 11:08 am

Midnight is way too late for me. Maybe next week. From what I’ve seen not much different from the 12:35 a.m. show. I think Fallon is fine, a much better choice than Conan.

John Smithers • on Feb 19, 2014 11:08 am

I’ve watched first 2 nights of Fallon hosting Tonight show.Now I remember now why I never watched him on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.He’s NOT FUNNY! seems like a good dude though.

Tom • on Feb 19, 2014 11:08 am

You said it! His show is all about him and his antics, which HE seems to think are so funny.
I can only imagine some guy who has never seen Fallon before turning for the first time, he will be shocked! The mistake that NBC is making is not recognizing that there is a different viewer at 11:30 than there is at 12:30. Big mistake pulling Jay, who was #1 in both the overall and the 18-49 demo. Anybody that wanted a younger host was already watching Conan, Kimmel or Colbert. NBC just pissed off all the older viewers who liked Jay and will switch out of loyalty to another. Big losers NBC and Jimmy Fallon……Big winners, anybody else on late night. I’m probably going to Kimmel or Letterman.

Anyone else care to comment about who they are moving to?

Guest • on Feb 19, 2014 11:08 am

They keep talking about the 18-49 demographics but out of all the people I know that are under 30 and old enough to have caught Conan and Leno and Fallon through their prime and transitions, there’s not much buzz about anything on television. The only real uproar was the Conan bandwagon when everyone suddenly was up in arms over something they never cared for a day ago. I’d be surprised if many even know Fallon is the new host of a show on late at night.

I don’t know, it might be the end of the late-night talk show as I like them to be. For me. Leno was a guy that had a consistent format: some simple direct jokes that a lot more people can relate to, short skit or poking fun at things even my parents can understand. and then to the interviews that are usually more about the guest, not the host sharing his own stories all the time. No #Twitter or Facebook.like time-killers or whatever the hell Kimmel and Conan does in social media. Letterman is deadweight–I try to skip the first half-hour and maybe catch an interesting guest; same for Ferguson.

The good thing is that with today’s abundance of choice, there is a choice. Or I could sleep earlier.

Kristy • on Feb 19, 2014 11:08 am

My husband and I have to work, therefore we never get to watch it at the normal hour. We watch it using Hulu. I’d like to see what those ratings are because Jimmy is more for a younger generation than Jay Leno. I think most people under 40 turn to Hulu, because they can’t plan their day around cable/satellite anymore.

Jim • on Feb 19, 2014 11:08 am

Haha! People still say Team Coco? Who are the other teams?

Terrence Linder • on Feb 19, 2014 11:08 am

New time and name change, same old boring jimmy Fallon! at least letterman can just grin, and get a laugh! Who watches Conan o brien? Yeah, I thought so! It starts with a No, and ends with body!

karl • on Feb 19, 2014 11:08 am

The size of the studio doesn’t have anything to do with cutting cost. They are taping the Tonight show at Rockefeller center and the studio was the same one in which Fallon did his Late night show in. Im not gonna lie though it does look smaller then his late night show but part of it is that they cleared the studio lights and structure and open up the ceiling and now it looks odd. That and the Roots new stand makes it look smaller I think.

Chris • on Feb 19, 2014 11:08 am

I watched last night, and I don’t think these ratings will last long.

And what’s with the cramped studio? He looked like he was standing in front of draped closet.

silas • on Feb 19, 2014 11:08 am

Fallons show is boring, watched the first night out of curiosity but could not bring myself to watch a second time. I will be watching Kimmel if anything at all.

Dalt • on Feb 19, 2014 11:08 am

Do we need to know every night’s results? Jimmy will be popular just on principle of being new for a while. Let’s see where he ends up down the road a bit. Or when he has a celebrity on that has picked up a prostitute and becomes the king of late night.

ted • on Feb 19, 2014 11:08 am

This proves what I’ve long said – Jimmy Fallon will do great and surpass Jay Leno in every way possible. A new king of late night has been crowned.

Ronny • on Feb 19, 2014 11:08 am

Listen up Hollyweird celebrities: my family will be boycotting anybody who appears on Jimmy Fallon Live, beginning with Will Smith & U-2. Jimmy Fallon got the tonight show by fraudulent means so we are boycotting you and your products and movies, albums, all of it. JAY didn’t ask to be treated this way dumb shit nBC!

JC. • on Feb 19, 2014 11:08 am

Shut up, Jay.

HKGuy • on Feb 19, 2014 11:08 am

No one cares.

Truth hurts Leno Fans • on Feb 19, 2014 11:08 am

And so, the thundering, angry Deadline.com commenters got a little bit quieter in the face of Fallon’s ratings strength. Still, some did cry out in protest…look for the angry drumbeat to slow to a whisper when Fallon’s ratings are still strong come spring and summer.

rich b • on Feb 19, 2014 11:08 am

Jimmy Fallon ain’t going nowhere.

They’ll scuttle the tonight show before they bring another host. Fallon or bust.

The only interesting part of this silly drama is whether Jay Leno decides to jump back in the game or not. Lots of people seem to like him and now they’re going to miss him. The missing part is a powerful emotion. Jay Leno is a young 60 something.

Rich b • on Feb 19, 2014 11:08 am

Fallon will have lower ratings than Leno no matter what. I don’t think much lower but lower. NBC panicked when O’Brien lost 49% of the customers. NBC won’t freak out if Fallon “only” loses 25% of the customers.